The Collect
ALMIGHTY, everlasting God, whose
servant Athanasius steadfastly confessed the Son our Saviour Jesus
Christ to be Very God and Very Man: Grant that we many hold fast to
this faith, and evermore magnify his holy Name; through the same thy
Son Jesus Christ our Lord, who liveth and reigneth with thee and the
Holy Spirit, ever one God, world without end. Amen.
Readings: (2 Corinthians iv. 5; Saint
Matthew x. 23)
Saint Athanasius of Alexandria, also
called Athanasius the Great and Athanasius the Confessor was the
twentieth bishop of Alexandria. His episcopate lasted 45 years, of
which over 17 were spent in five exiles ordered by four different
Roman emperors. Athanasius is a renowned Christian theologian, a
Church Father, the chief defender of Trinitarianism against Arianism
and a noted Egyptian leader of the fourth century.
